Combatting the Issue of Human Trafficking

Have you ever walked into Wal-Mart and taken the time to look at the numerous pictures of missing youth that is plastered on the wall? When looking at how long they have been missing, it ranges anywhere from months to years. Looking at their age, both boys and girls, it is hard not to wonder if these kids are being trafficked. Child sex trafficking, also known as human trafficking, is a major issue that is not only plaguing the United States, but the world. Residing in a state where teen sex trafficking is very common, it is imperative that not only adults, but the youth understand what child sex/human trafficking is, what is a sex-trafficker, and the data that reveals the seriousness of child sex

Human trafficking is defined as a recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, of receipt of persons, by means of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, or abuse of power of a position of vulnerability for the purpose of exploitation (Human Trafficking Information). Today human trafficking, also known as modern-day slavery, has been one of the controversial issues in the United States and nationwide. In fact, it is now considered as the fastest growing multi-billion-dollar business form of organized crime. Also, Human trafficking is affecting the lives of millions around the globe and robbing the victims of their pride. As a matter of fact, Traffickers deceive men, women, and young children from around the world to force them into unspeakable

Human trafficking has been a controversial issue for many years. There are different types of trafficking, which helps makes it a widely diverse issue. In Thailand, traffickers rely on the poor desperate people of other countries as well as their own to fulfill their needs financially, physically, and emotionally. Thailand has various reasons why they use human trafficking; sex exploitation, forced labor, and obtaining their organs for an organ transplant. Sex exploitation has been used by mainly men for a long time. They choose both women and children to violate, sometimes even men. The prettier the woman is the more she is worth. All men, woman, and children could be forced into labor. This varies from what the owner wants from them. People can also choose to go and work for them because they think this is their only way of making money, but they usually do not see much of it. Finally, others purchase them just for their organs. There are very long waiting lists on some organs, by the time one comes about the person in need of the organ has already passed away. There are a number of steps and reasons that are involved in human trafficking. With all of these issues of; sex exploitations, and forced labor, and organ trafficking, the trafficked can become physically and mentally injured.

Rehabilitation for victims is available such as Freedom Place and Dream Center. Joy Friedman, a survivor of 27 years of sex trafficking in the United States, now serves as women’s program manager at Breaking Free, a Minnesota nonprofit group that helps women and children escape that world. On average, sex trafficking victims are between 12 and 14. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 U.S. children are sex slaves. Providing care for these victims is very important, their self-esteem is completely demolished and don’t know where to begin to fix themselves.

According to the Human Trafficking Commission, “thirteen years old is the most common age in Ohio for children to becoming victims of sex trafficking.” Exact statistics on human trafficking are hard to calculate because of the secretive nature of the billion-dollar enterprise. With Cleveland’s high rates of poverty, there are few job opportunities, resulting in a plethora of problems, including sex trafficking. Ohio’s five major highways are partially to blame for the rising numbers in the human trafficking enterprise. With a sufficient amount of connections to other states, and to the Canadian border, there are more than enough accessible routes for victims to be transported.

Multiple laws have been created at the federal and state level in order to identify victims, prosecute sex traffickers, and to protect victims of the crime. The state of Ohio adopted the Federal law entitled, the “ Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000”, which

Imagine being taken from the comfort of your house and family. Then envision that you are forced to either inject or ingest as drugs to give sexual pleasure to one person while the other reaps financial benefits. You are experiencing such atrocity at the same moment in which your loved ones are mourn your loss. Eventually, you are unrecognizable and affected by traumatizing experiences. The effects that you frequently feel are numb and now you are suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. This is the reality that many endure on daily basis. It is caused by the constant practice of human trafficking.

Human trafficking is a serious problem in modern society. In fact, the United Nations has referred to it as “one of the gravest human rights violations of our times” (“Secretary - General Calls Human Trafficking”). It is a fast growing industry that affects millions. No gender, age, or status is spared from the cruelty that is trafficking. To stress this point again, human trafficking is not just a problem of the “world” or “United States”, in general. As previously seen, it strikes very close to home, affecting hundreds of men, women, and children of our own community. In fact, “North Carolina ranked as a top-10 state for human trafficking with Charlotte being the top destination. It is estimated that more than 1,700 girls are trafficked

Oftentimes when people hear the term human sex trafficking, they think of heinous acts that take place in other countries where adults, children, girls and boys are exploited to perform sexual acts in exchange for money or goods against their will. They think it typically occurs in places that are less developed than the United States. However, the reality of this horrific crime is that it is taking place in the United States, and it occurs more and more each and every day. Young girls are not solely the victim of human sex trafficking, young boys are victims of this monstrous act as well. Individuals residing in the United States need to be made more aware of this issue as it has started to rise through social media, large events, and by those in other countries being promised work here. After researching, it is apparent that there is a great deal of information that is lacking, on sex trafficking in the United States. Not only is sex trafficking an issue, but the lack of awareness about sex trafficking is also an issue. This thesis proposes that human sex trafficking is an unacknowledged epidemic within the United States, and it seeks to discover why it has become so prevalent.

Human Trafficking has been the biggest criminal case of many other cases. Its been going on for years and still going on today. The campaign of Human Trafficking- Ohio's Tragic Reality came up with this poster for awareness of human trafficking. There task is to open people's eyes so they can identify the different typed of human trafficking and to help others who are being forced. Also, they want to improve their strategy to stop human trafficking. They try to connect with the victims more, analyze their cases, and being able to stop other cases before is too late. They also go out on public places on the look for other humans being trafficked. With this poster they want from our help to save these victims that are being mistreated and being forced into something they don’t want to do.

No nation is immune from human trafficking. Even the most powerful nations are not immune from modern day slavery.The main contributors to human trafficking are governmental corruption, economic and social crisis within each nation's borders.Globalization is the development of an increasingly integration marked especially by free trade that transcends nation-state boundaries. Human trafficking represents a highly and interconnected world because as the world evolves and people become more connected, the transfer of people both voluntarily and coerced is becoming more prevalent. Human trafficking is a very lucrative business that extends beyond nation-state boundaries Human trafficking represents a highly and interconnected world because it is tightly connected to the worlds economy, and ironically is caused by the gap of the wealthy and poor even though it has been present for centuries the government is just beginning to address this common problem.. Globalization seems to have played a major role in the rise of sex slavery and the sex trade but has also played major roles in efforts to stop it.

According to the Bureau of Justice, human trafficking is becoming the nations second largest problem, following the war on drugs (“Anti Human Trafficking Initiative” 1.) Statistics on human trafficking in the United States are very scarce and there have not been many studies conducted on the issue. Of the studies done, many of the studies focus only on minors. 100,000-300,000 children are prostituted each year in the United States. In the Ohio, 1,078 people will be trafficked into the sex trade each year. Between January 2003 and June 2006, 15 human trafficking cases were identified in the Columbus and Toledo area. Human trafficking is not something that only takes place in foreign areas, which is why the Polaris project is working to fight human trafficking not only in foreign areas but also in the United States.

There is a wide misconception among Americans that support the idea that human trafficking is something that only occurs overseas and not something that takes place in the United States. As a country that puts a huge value on freedom of choice, many U.S. citizens naively wish to believe that such an inhumane offense could never occur on our own free soil. Unfortunately, this notion is not true at all and domestic trafficking is an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed within our own borders. In addition to this disturbing crime occurring in our country, it is apparent that female immigrants are the most at risk of being victims of this crime. A better understanding of why this crime occurs would be beneficial in all aspects of the law and would aid in preventing domestic trafficking from reoccurring and in helping those more at risk to become safer. From a policing standpoint it is clear that only through a more comprehensive and in-depth look into what provokes criminals to become involved in domestic trafficking, by utilizing different criminological theories, can there be any real changes. The key is not only to stop one specific instance of domestic trafficking in the U.S. but to also aid in preventing it from reoccurring. It is also important to utilize different criminal theories when considering what makes immigrant women more vulnerable when it comes to this specific crime. If more officers of the law become more educated regarding the different

Many Americans remain ignorant of human trafficking within the United States, believing that this inhumane act only occurs in third-world countries. No one likes to believe that it can be happening in our own country let alone in some of our own states and cities. Society rarely takes the time to understand these women and what lead them into trafficking and what factors contributed to them staying in trafficking. This study seeks to voice the ability to raise awareness, enhance penalties for the traffickers/violator’s, and offer rehabilitation for the victims.

In recent times, the number of human trafficking cases has skyrocketed through the roof. So, what exactly is human trafficking? Human trafficking is defined as a criminal activity, in which people are recruited, harboured, transported, bought or kidnapped for the purposes of exploitation. These exploitations include forced labour, child soldiery, sexual slavery, forced marriages and so on. Statistics show that the main victims of human trafficking consist of women and young girls while children come in a close third (Appendix A). Over the years, human trafficking has become rampant worldwide as the demand for human labour and sex slaves drastically multiplies due to the Internet.